1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a detergent composition suitable for washing colored fabrics, of which the surfactant component is a combination of nonionic surfactants with acyl cyanamide salts and which contains certain water-soluble polymers to prevent the transfer of dyes from colored fabrics to white or light-colored fabrics during the washing process.
2. Statement of the Related Art
The transfer of dyes during the washing of colored and white or light-colored fabrics is a well known problem to which some solutions have already been proposed. Unfortunately, these proposed solutions have not been entrirely satisfactory because of their limited effectiveness with respect to a number of colors and fabrics. Thus, British Pat. No. 1,348,212 (and corresponding German patent application No. 22 32 353) describes a detergent of which the discoloration inhibitor is polyvinyl pyrrolidone. U.S. Pat. No. 3,932,295 (and corresponding German patent application No. 24 20 561) describes a detergent comprising a combination of alkali metal percarbonate and polyethylene glycol having a certain molecular weight and/or polyvinyl pyrrolidone. U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,257 (and corresponding German patent application No. 23 09 099) describes a detergent incorporating two different organic compounds which contain basic nitrogen atoms in the molecule. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,005,029 and 4,006,092 describe detergents containing "per" compounds as discoloration inhibitors.
According to published German patent application No. 30 26 090, cationic starch ethers are added to liquid detergents based on certain nonionic surfactants and fabric-softening quaternary ammonium compounds to prevent the transfer of dyes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,869 (and corresponding German patent application No. 28 28 619) describes a discoloration-inhibiting detergent of three different types of surfactant, namely (1) nonionic surfactants, (2) zwitterionic or semipolar surfactants and (3) cationic surfactants, which have to be present in certain quantitative ratios. Published German patent application No. 31 24 210 describes a liquid detergent based on nonionic or zwitterionic surfactants. This detergent contains certain water soluble polymers to prevent the transfer of dyes. A fabric detergent containing the same acylcyanamide salts, a builder, optional nonionic surfactants and optional other standard detergent ingredients is described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 06/618,608 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,306, and corresponding German application No. P 33 20 726.7.